


A Wish For A Fallen Star

by aschicca



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Fix It, M/M, Oral Sex, Post-Order of the Phoenix, Time Travel, temporary major character death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2019-08-26
Packaged: 2020-09-27 03:50:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20401213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aschicca/pseuds/aschicca
Summary: In which Remus Lupin finds a pocket watch and, unwittingly, makes a wish.





	A Wish For A Fallen Star

**Author's Note:**

> While I was working on something else (two ‘something else’ actually, one of which is with my Beta and the other undergoing massive editing,) this tiny little story kept nagging and nagging, and wouldn’t be ignored. Time Travel is not exactly a trope I ever thought of writing, and I've actually read very few stories about it in fandom. But, it wouldn't be denied and here it is now :) Enjoy!
> 
> Oh, and some lines of the dialogue at the end are obviously liberally taken out of J.K. Rowling's books. Fit too well not to use it ;)
> 
> Thank you to Piksa for the Beta read!

The door to the house on Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place appeared in front of his eyes, but for the longest time Remus didn’t move. Harry and the other, injured, members of Dumbledore’s Army were back at Hogwarts, and the rest of the Order had other matters to attend to. Remus was the one left with the task of going back to the Blacks’ ancestral home and clean it up of all possible evidence left within it.

Sirius Black was dead, Grimmauld Place irreparably compromised, and the Order needed to find a new place to set as Headquarters. Still, it wouldn’t do to abandon the house without checking it first, and so Remus needed to force his feet to move and go back inside without Sirius: He needed to learn to do everything without Sirius now. Because Sirius was dead.

He was dead and gone and lost forever.

Suppressing a shiver, Remus entered the house – hoping not to see Kreacher or he wouldn’t be held responsible for whatever happened to the house elf – and immediately moved towards the room the Order used for the meetings, as that would no doubt be the one where all the possible documents, plans, and whatever else might have been left behind. He was there for that specific reason, and it would be better to be as quick as possible with it. Besides, Remus had no wish to even look at the stairs let alone climb them, reach the bedrooms, and face the bed he’d shared with Sirius just the night before.

He made quick work of the meeting room, gathering in a bag everything that needed keeping and destroying the rest, and then Remus moved to the parlour where sometimes the Order sat and discussed matters. Checking there, too, was definitely a good idea.

Upon entering the room, Remus was immediately assailed by a very familiar scent coming from the direction of the desk. A robe hung carelessly on the back of the desk chair and, dropping the bag, Remus moved towards it like a moth to a flame. He picked up the robe, brought it to his nose, and inhaled deeply for a moment, before pressing the piece of clothing against his own body like he couldn’t do with Sirius anymore. 

Harsh, ugly sobs left his mouth as the pain Remus felt finally found a way out, and he let himself go. Remus wept, repeated Sirius’s name over and over, tried and failed to breathe properly, and let the scent of his lost mate surround him.

“I can’t… Please… Sirius, please… I can’t do it. I won’t. I can’t be without you… Why?” Remus wailed. “Why did you leave me? Why couldn’t you… Why, Sirius, WHY?”

A surge of anger suddenly drowned the pain, and Remus ripped the robe away from himself and threw it on the floor, crushing it under his feet. 

“How could you? You stupid, reckless, insufferable bastard! Why didn’t you stay behind like I begged you to? Why didn’t you put me first for once? Did I ever truly matter to you?” 

While he was shouting all this, voice breaking with every word, Remus took out his wand without even realising he’d moved, and started hurling spells at the robe. He hit it over and over until only a pile of ashes remained. 

“Why did you have to play the hero? Leave yourself wide open? Provoke Bellatrix and laugh in her face? Why, Sirius?”

Remus whirled around, threw away the chair, and slammed his fists against the desk, disturbing every object placed on it. A few quills fell to the floor, a book jumped away, and a lonely roll of parchment scrolled all the way to the edge of the desk. 

Also, the lid of a little jewellery box that Remus couldn’t recall ever having seen before sprung open.

The box was beautifully crafted, made with fine, inlaid wood, and obviously very valuable: It was a true work of art. Inside the box, resting on a red velvety cushion, was a pocket watch made of solid gold that Remus couldn’t resist picking up. A small voice at the back of his head warned him about touching anything in the House of Black that hadn’t been thoroughly examined and deemed harmless beforehand, but Remus didn’t listen. So what if the watch killed him? What did he have left to lose?

The watch felt heavy in Remus’s hand and the little chain hanging from it tickled his fingers. Turning it over, Remus gasped when he saw that the constellation of the Canis Major was engraved on it, and that a tiny, perfectly round diamond embedded in it marked the position of the Sirius star. The light of the brightest, most beautiful star in the sky was blinding everywhere, it seemed, no matter if it was in the sky, or carefully inserted in the design of a watch – or even in flesh and blood and bones.

Remus’s fist wrapped around the clock, the diamond cold and hard against his palm, and he closed his eyes.

“I wish… Sirius… I’m so sorry. I wish I could have done more, helped more, convinced you not to risk your life. I wish you were still here. I love you. I wish I had another chance…”

When the last of Remus’s words left his mouth, the world around him started to spin and, with a panicked cry, he fell backwards and immediately lost consciousness.

*

Voices. Remus could hear voices. He carefully opened his eyes and found himself still lying on the floor of the parlour in Grimmauld Place. 

“What…” 

Remus slowly sat up, rubbing at the back of his head and glad he couldn’t feel blood or even a bump. To his great surprise, Remus found that his body did not hurt at all. After the way he’d fallen, he expected to be injured somehow, maybe even concussed, but instead he felt completely fine. It was like nothing had happened.

Getting up, Remus perused the room and the sight that greeted him stopped his breath in his throat. Sirius’s robe, the one that Remus had incinerated earlier in a fit of rage, rested casually on the back of the same chair that should have been lying on the ground where Remus had thrown it. Everything on the desk was in its proper place, and the little wooden box was closed.

Remus looked down at the hand that should have been holding the watch, and found it empty but for a small red spot in the centre of his palm: The exact same size of the Sirius-diamond.

“I must be going mad,” Remus mused. “I don’t…”

The sound of voices reached him again, and this time Remus understood that they came from downstairs, from the kitchen. He ran quickly down the stairs and caught the end of the conversation.

“…You know where he is!”

Harry! That was Harry’s voice! Remus made towards the door but stopped when he heard Kreacher cackle and tell Harry that Sirius would never come back from the Department of Mysteries. Then the elf ran away, and Harry shouted after him.

Was this… Did Remus come back to the moment Kreacher tricked Harry into thinking that Voldemort had Sirius? Was he in time to stop the worst from happening? Remus didn’t know, but he didn’t have time to wait for answers. He needed to act now.

“Harry!” Remus called, frantic, entering the kitchen. “Harry!!”

“Remus? Professor Lupin, is that you?” Harry called back from the fireplace.

“Yes! It’s me, I’m here. We’re both here. Sirius and I! We’re here!”

“Really? But… But I asked Kreacher and he said..”

“I heard what that weasel said but don’t you believe it, Harry. We’re here and we’re okay. It’s a trick!”

Harry’s face shifted in the fireplace and Remus could see that the boy wasn’t reassured. 

_He needs to see for himself,_ Remus thought. _He needs to see Sirius._

As soon as the thought entered Remus’s mind, he realised that he had the perfect way to prove not just to Harry, but to himself as well, that Sirius was in the house and that Remus truly had travelled back in time. And if he had, then that meant… Sirius was in the house… Not dead… Sirius was still here. 

Unable to control himself, and not caring if his shouting could frighten Harry, Remus yelled Sirius’s name at the top of his lungs, and kept calling and calling for him until his voice was hoarse.

“Remus…” Harry tried from the fireplace, but he never finished his thought because right then Sirius barged into the kitchen.

“Blimey Remus! Is the house on fire? And if it is, why didn’t you let it burn?” Sirius asked, out of breath at obviously having ran downstairs to answer Remus’s call.

“Sirius…” Remus whispered and, unconsciously, worried at the red, Sirius-shaped spot on the palm of his hand.

“Yes?”

“Sirius!” Harry shouted from the fireplace.

“Harry? Are you okay? What happened?” 

“I was checking on you! I saw Voldemort torturing you and…” Harry launched in a detailed description of the scene Voldemort had planted in his head in order to get him to go in the Department of Mysteries, but Remus tuned him out. He knew all about it already. He’d lived it.

Was this his second chance? Would he be able to save Sirius’s life this time? If so, Remus decided, he would do anything in his power to either prevent Sirius’s death or simply make sure he’d go with him this time.

Sirius was reassuring Harry about his own safety, and urging him to leave Umbridge’s office before the witch came back and discovered him there. He also promised to alert the Order about Harry’s vision, and told him that they would take care of it. When Harry was finally convinced that his Godfather was okay, he said his goodbyes and the fireplace fizzled out.

“That bloody… I’m going to kill him!” Sirius yelled.

“Wha… Who?”

“What do you mean who? Kreacher, that’s who! That two-faced, back-stabbing, disloyal little rat!” Sirius shouted, angrily, and he made towards the door.

“Wait, Sirius. Wait a moment, please,” Remus pleaded, and grabbed Sirius by the arm. The contact startled Remus and he unconsciously tightened his hand around Sirius’s flesh.

“Ouch! Moony, what…”

Remus pulled Sirius to him and, when he was as close as he wanted him, let go of his arm only to wrap his own around Sirius’s body and hold him tight. Sirius’s arms came around Remus’s back immediately, too, and Remus took deep breaths and tried not to weep.

“What’s wrong?” Sirius asked. “Is it because Harry saw Voldemort torturing me? I’m well, Moony, I’m right here.”

“No… no…” Remus repeated over and over, shaking his head. 

“No? No what? You’re not making any sense, Remus!”

“You were _dead_!” Remus yelled directly into Sirius’s hear, and the latter jumped and stepped back out of the embrace.

“What? Are you mad?”

Remus cackled, doing nothing to disabuse Sirius of the notion that he had indeed lost his mind. 

“Remus…”

“See this?” Remus asked, raising a hand and showing Sirius the burn on his palm. “The little round mark on it? The pocket watch left it on me when I used it to come back in time! Only, I didn’t know I was doing that, did I? I just held the ruddy thing! And then I fell and hit my head, and when I woke up… bam! You’re here, and I’m here… and Harry….”

Sirius gaped at Remus.

“The pocket watch?”

“Yes! On your desk, in the parlour! With your diamond, your star, whatever. I held it and… Fuck it, maybe I am going mad…” Remus babbled.

“Right, come sit down,” Sirius invited, and took Remus’s burned hand to guide him to a chair. “Start from the beginning,” he asked when they were seated.

Remus told him everything: How Kreacher betrayed them and told Harry that Sirius was being tortured by Voldemort; how Harry rushed to the Ministry and picked up the Prophecy; how the Death Eaters attacked him and his friends, and then the Order arrived and fought back. Remus told Sirius in detail what happened to him after his deranged cousin hit him with a stunning spell and sent him tumbling into the Veil, and Sirius swallowed noisily and grasped Remus’s hand tight when he recounted how he had to hold Harry back from following Sirius – while at the same time using the hold to prevent himself from doing the same. He talked about Dumbledore, and Harry, and their fight with Voldemort. And then he told him everything about coming to Grimmauld Place, finding the pocket watch by chance, and holding it tight while he wished for Sirius to be back.

When he finished, Sirius asked Remus to come upstairs with him and they returned to the parlour, hand in hand. Once there, Sirius released Remus’s hand and went to the desk to open the box. Remus started at seeing the watch back in its place like it never left it, like Remus had dreamed everything. But he didn’t, did he?

Sirius took out the watch and came back to Remus; when he turned it around, Remus’s eyes widened when he realised that the diamond was now missing. The surface was smooth and, while the Canis Major was still engraved on the back of the watch, nothing marked the position of Sirius anymore.

“But I…” Remus startled. “The diamond… I swear… Do you believe me?”

“Of course I do. This watch belonged to my uncle Alphard,” Sirius explained, returning to the desk and placing the watch there. “When he decided to leave the watch to me before he died, Alphard asked a jeweller he trusted to add the engraving and the diamond on it. The diamond was part of a very ancient collection, and Alphard won it during a game of Wizard’s Chess: He told me that it was called ‘Wish Upon A Star’ and that it possessed the power to grant one wish… Just one wish, but it had to benefit the owner of the diamond. Me.”

“So I…”

“You said you held it, and you wished for me to be back. You wished to help me and protect me, and here you are,” Sirius marvelled. “I never truly believed, you know? Alphard did, he was so sure, but I… a wish? For me? Hardly seemed possible but… Here you are.”

“Here I am… But, the diamond…”

Sirius took back Remus’s hand and brought it to his lips to kiss the small, round mark. “Here you are,” he repeated once more.

Remus still craved more answers and was worried about the ramifications of his turning back time and altering reality; nonetheless, he decided that for now they’d had enough talking and so he pulled Sirius to him and took his lips in a bruising kiss.

Sirius clung to him, mouth willingly opening under Remus’s, and allowed Remus to claim him as roughly as he wanted. Remus’s tongue played with Sirius’s and licked the inside of his mouth, as if he could never have enough of the taste. Meanwhile, Remus’s hands found their place on the back of Sirius’s stylish trousers and gripped his ass through them, making Sirius moan gutturally. 

“Moony…” Sirius murmured, when Remus allowed him to catch his breath and instead licked a path down his neck. 

“Shut up. Shut up, don’t say anything.” 

To prevent Sirius from speaking, Remus once again attacked his mouth in a biting kiss.

Remus’s knee worked its way in between Sirius’s, and his thigh pressed firmly against Sirius’s cock, while his own rubbed deliciously on Sirius’s leg. Mouth pressed against Remus’s, Sirius moaned and the sound delighted Remus.

“I don’t want you to talk,” Remus said, releasing Sirius’s mouth. “But _I_ need to, so we’ll have to find some way to keep your mouth busy while I do.”

“I do have an idea,” Sirius winked and Remus grinned, a feral glint in his eye.

“Sit down,” Remus ordered, pointing to the desk chair and blinking away the tears that pooled in his eyes when he caught sight of the robe on the back of it. 

“Leave that there,” he said then, pointing at the item.

“My favourite robe. Can’t believe you destroyed it,” Sirius said, cheekily.

“Didn’t I tell you to shut up?”

Nodding, Sirius laughed, then sat down and looked up at Remus.

“Now let’s see if we can’t fill up your mouth,” Remus said, huskily, and went to stand in front of Sirius. He opened his own trousers and lowered his pants so he could take out his cock. 

Sirius helped him, and soon he had the head of Remus’s cock in his mouth.

“Gentle now, Pads. I want you to listen closely so let’s make sure we don’t both get too distracted, okay?”

Sirius grinned around Remus’s cock and licked the slit. When Remus gasped, he chuckled sending even more pleasurable vibrations down his cock, and forcing Remus to grab a fistful of Sirius’s hair and pull his head back.

“Behave,” Remus told him, and Sirius nodded with his mouth still obscenely open and slicked with saliva. Remus couldn’t resist bending down towards him to kiss his own taste off of that enticing mouth.

As soon as Remus stood again, Sirius took his cock back in his mouth and started sucking on it gently.

“Ah! Merlin, you’re too good at this…” Remus breathed out. “But I need… Oh… I need you to listen. I need to say this. Because you can’t… Sirius, you just can’t keep acting like this… Fuck! Wait… Don’t…”

Sirius took Remus’s cock out and just held it against his lips with his hand.

“Come on, Moons, say it.”

“I need you to be careful. If you won’t stay hidden, if we have to find ourselves once more in a fight with Death Eaters, be it at the Ministry or wherever, I need you to take every precaution and pay attention to your surroundings. If you care about me, even a little, you will give me this, Sirius, because I can’t watch you die again… I just can’t… I…” 

Remus trailed off and curled in a bit on himself, the thought of how he’d lost Sirius before and how he could lose him again too painful for him to bear. A sudden jolt of pleasure shot through him, and Remus let out a loud moan.

“Sirius… Pads…”

Sirius looked up at Remus, his mouth full of cock and his eyes shining with unshed tears, then slowly took all of Remus’s length in until his nose brushed against the hair on his pelvis. Remus could do nothing else but push his hands in Sirius’s curls and let himself go. Sirius’s head bobbed up and down his cock, and whenever the head hit the back of Sirius’s throat, Remus grunted and shivered.

It went by embarrassingly fast, the mix of emotions that gripped Remus reduced his self-control to the bare minimum, and Sirius was too talented anyway. Remus came down Sirius’s throat with a scream and, as soon as Sirius released him, he folded his knees and sat down at Sirius’s feet burying his head in Sirius’s thigh.

“Sorry… Sorry, I…” Remus muttered, but Sirius shushed him.

“I care more about you than I care about myself, Remus,” Sirius said, and Remus looked up at him in shock. “I love you, and I can’t even imagine what… I’m the one who should be sorry, Moony, not you. You saved my life so many times. You took me into your home, you came here in this bloody hell hole of a house when I needed you to, you kept me sane, you kept me anchored, and now you literally turned back time for me.”

Sirius took Remus’s chin in his hand and kissed him softly.

“If you… If it’s something you ask of me, I…” Sirius closed his eyes and took a deep breath before continuing. “If you want me to, I will not leave the house again. I won’t… When the fight will be taken to us, I won’t be involved. I… You know I want, that I _need_ to be there for Harry, but... I will put you first. I will, Remus, just like you’ve done with me always.”

Remus took one of Sirius’s hands in his and kissed it. “I want that. You have no idea just how much I want that: To keep you safe, keep you hidden, and out of harm’s way. But, Sirius, I could never ask that of you. It would eat you inside if you had to stay behind and leave Harry in danger, leave me alone out there. Just promise me you’ll be as careful as you can be. Please…”

Both he and Sirius were now openly crying and refusing to hide their tears from one another. Remus slowly went up to his knees, bracketed by Sirius’s legs, and hugged him close. Sirius held back as tightly as he could and murmured his promises in Remus’s neck.

“Can we relocate to the sofa?” Remus asked after a while. “I’m an old man and my knees are about to give in.”

Sirius laughed and helped Remus up. They sat together on the sofa, Sirius in Remus’s arms, his legs on Remus’s lap and his chest against his side. Remus nuzzled at his hair and placed kisses on every bit of Sirius’s face he could reach.

“I promise, Moony,” Sirius said, over and over.

“I know. Thank you. Can’t believe you’re here…” Remus answered him, his head still reeling with everything that had happened to him that day. 

The day he’d lived twice, with very different outcomes, and that he would remember until he died; the day he went from despair to hope, from pain to pleasure, from misery to pure, unadulterated joy.

Remus looked down at his hand and at the tiny mark on his palm, and hoped it would never fade, that it would forever stay there as a symbol of the second chance he’d wished for and that had been granted to him, and to Sirius.

They kept each other close, knowing it wouldn’t last and that soon the new reality they’d created would come knocking at their door, and they’d have to face whatever it had in store for them. Dumbledore would have to be informed about the alternate reality, the wish, and the diamond, and both the watch and Remus’s hand would have to be examined. 

Voldemort still wanted the Prophecy and Harry was the only one who could retrieve it: One way or the other both Sirius and Remus would soon find themselves fighting for it, for Harry, and for the Order. The outcome was as unpredictable as it had always been but maybe, just maybe, they had a chance now. They could, at the very least, try not to repeat the mistakes of a past that had been a horrible present just a few hours before.

Sighing, and unwilling to let Sirius go just yet, Remus closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind of all thoughts.

“Moons?”

“Yes?”

“If Kreacher is a traitor we’re going to need to leave this house soon, don’t we?”

“I suppose so, yes. Why?”

“Because I think I would like to add another shrunken elf head to my dear old mum’s collection before we do,” Sirius declared, grimly. “It would truly add to the decor of the staircase wall, don’t you think?”

Remus burst out laughing. “I believe Dumbledore might have a different suggestion for Kreacher, or that he had least will want to question him first,” Remus replied, finally. 

Sirius blew a raspberry at that, and Remus laughed again.

The soft pop of apparition disturbed the little moment they were having, and Remus understood their time had already come to an end. Reality, in the face of Alastor Moody, entered the parlour and told them that Harry had been informed about the Prophecy and had gone to the Department of Mysteries to retrieve it.

“Sirius,” Moody said. “I know telling you to stay behind is a lost cause, but try to keep yourself out of sight of any Ministry official, if you please.”

“I solemnly swear,” Sirius promised, grinning.

Remus barked out a laugh. “Up to no good, are we?” He whispered.

“Always,” Sirius winked back. 

Then he got up and, as soon as Remus stood beside him, Sirius offered him his hand. 

“Together?”

“I think so,” Remus pledged, and they disapparated.


End file.
